Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1887-12-17

isticatiOn, the dungeon, the gibhct and the
stake; and still the Prohibition of non-con
formity Was failure. ReactiOnsry force
was stronger than the penalties. The re-
suit was, countries were ruined-people
fled to the wilderness. Win. Howard, the
Quaker philanthropist, said that the at
tempt to enforce the Prohibition OF non
conformity cost 1900, 900 lives, and the
result was the formation OF 800 different
forms Of Christianity. Our torefathers
knew these facts, add said: 1--WE will
divorce human affairs from Gods affairs
and establish purely secular government"
They had then seen the blue laws on the
statute books of one of the colonies, and
concluded that in the light of history there
was no limit to the extent 10 which such
evil might be carried il not kept out OF
government. We do not want to make
war on the church, but it must keep within
its own field, which is to teach and to
preach. This new party, however, intends
to force things; proposes to crush first one
great party, then the other, and take pos
session of the republic. Let US consider
some,,of these fallaCies.
They urge q paralleliSm of this move
ment with that of ab0litionism. There is
no parallel. In the first place, the Adolf
tiOnists didn't free the slaves, and in the
next place there is diametrical differences
in the movement. The doctrine OF the old
Abolitionists was that the scope of liberty |
should be widened. The Prohibitionist |
would narrow it.
/ heard Prof Campbell speak twice on
Prohibition. He is teacher, and taught |
logic, but he hasn't the first conception of
what logic is. He began both speeches
with the remark: Alexander conquered
the world; wine killed Alexander" The
inference was that wine should be prohib-
tied TO save the Alexander3. 1t was eX
cess-the violation of natural laws; he
violated his manly sovereignty of self
control. Prof Campbell might have been
neatly answered by the quotation: HE
that governs himself is greater than he
that ,aketh a city"
the sophistry he and other Prohibition
speakers perpetrate is absurd. The boys
tried to see which would eat the greater
number OF eggs. The boys died. Would |
you prohibit eggs? A man on hot day in
a harvest field, Overheated, drank great
quantity ofwater from cold spring, and |
the water killed him. Should we prohibit
water? The American citizen is expected |
to govern himself An old topper in Oregon,
who had not drawn q sober breath for
twenty years, was sobered up and reform
ed by visit from his sister who came out |
from the East. He felt the responsibility
OF maintaining his old home character in
her eyes. The true solution of the whisky |
question is to make the individual feel per-
sonal responsibility. This is working ont
the question for itself. 1t is not true that
drunkenness is on the increase. 1t is
decreasing. The great temperance re-
formers in this lard are steam and cleo
tricity, with the exact business response
bilities they bring. A man must let
drunkenness alone when he has anything |
to do with steam engines and electric
agencies. Drunkenness was respectable |
among the people in feudal times-the
men of rank had nothing TO do but eat and |
drink themselves under the table every |
day. TWAS almost universal in this cOun-
try a hundred years ago. The statistics
show that one dollar in every four was
spent for alcohol while now, it is one in
every twelve. Yet, PrOhibitiOnists say
that this is their last resort to save the
race fJOm the fast increasing evil'' of in
Temperance. hope tine people will get
rid OF this fustian. They say moral sua-
sion is q failure. PrepOsterous! The
nope of all future progress de-
ponds on moral suasiOn. Only through
it are mental convictions formed. 1t rules
the destiny Of the race. Long ago peO'
pie in Asia became convinced that it was
wrong to kill animals and eat their flesh
Not one Of these people would eat meat
to. day, though many of them have been
tempted in every possible way in Europe.
The Mohammedans were taught that alCo-
hol taken voluntarily into the mouth will
damn the soul Of the driUker. They have
carried their mental convictions for thou
sand years aud they won't touch alcohol
now.
Temperance, not Prohibition, is the true
philosophy Ot the Christian religion.
lit was Gods will that alcohol should
not exist ia the economy of the universe,
no di,tilltr, no brewer, no chemist could
make alcohol, though he might try for a
thousand years.